Saturday, 25 February 2017

I still don my socks in the morning. At 4 a.m., stone-tiled floors are nippy on
the feet at that hour, despite the current rise of temperature during the
day. At 12 noon they come off. At Maha-Sringha’s home some of our Canadian
devotees, as well as Russian, along with Bengali brahmacaris, warmly (in more
ways than one) sat in kirtan. It was a jam session, in some ways, with
guitar and saxophone. It was
marvelous—musicians playing the maha-mantra.

Still more heated up, came the kirtanmela (chanting festival) which I led from 4 to 5 p.m.Here we incorporated traditional mrdunga drum and kartals (hand cymbals,) along with gong and harmonium, to invoke a
beautiful form of praising Krishna.Dancing—I
insisted upon—so we had the entire hall of people moving to steps of devotion.

It’s great when we all work and move
together.That’s called co-operation.

I have been rather strict with diet, a low purine
one, which means low in protein.

“Now, just add some barley to your
eating.It’s the major source of B12,
which is lacking in many vegetarians,” said one Ayur-veda doctor.

We did have meals between exuberant
chanting sessions—a way to burn up cells that consumption brings.

On this last day of our AGM I was asked to
read this passage from a lecture by our guru, Srila Prabhupada, recorded on
Feb. 22/1967, fifty years ago in San Francisco:

“So as soon as we are separated, that is
our conditional state.How we are
separated?Just like the sparks of the
fire, as soon as he's come out of the fire and falls down on the ground, it
loses its illumination immediately.Immediately.That illuminating
spark which was dancing with the fire, as soon as falls down, it becomes black,
charcoal.It is just like carbon.So [a]long with the fire, it is just like, as
good as fire, illuminating.

“So our position is like that.We are sparks, energy.As from the energy of the fire, there are so
many dancing, similarly, we are all sparks of the Supreme Lord.But as soon as we come out of the fire, as
soon as we want to become independent of the Supreme Absolute Truth, that
spiritual energy becomes almost extinguished.It is never to be extinguished, but it appears, it appears.Just like fire covered with ashes.So again, when ashes are removed, the fire
comes.

“So our position is like that.We are now covered by the ash of this
material energy and, as soon as this will be removed...The removal process is Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa,
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa—ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam (CC Antya 20.12), cleansing process.As soon as we are completely cleansed, we are
as good, I mean, as illuminating as Kṛṣṇa.

“So this is the process.We shall study again tomorrow.Thank you very much.”

It’s Bhavananda’s usual way of teasing,
having fun, and putting a spark into your day.

That brief exchange put light in the
morning.It was in the morning that I
had also attended the Sridham Mayapura International School (SMIS) for their
opening day.On their campus, a full
four hours was given to drama presentations by the various grades of
students.They were adorable, from
pre-schoolers to teens.

I also wanted to report the beautiful
tribute made to the late Jagajivan, an inspiration to many of the Krishna
pioneers of South America.He was always
lively and upbeat, and offering a moderating influence when the atmosphere was
heavy with emotions.He died last fall
from the effects of a stroke.Isn’t it
good to know that the spirit persists?

Today was the final day of our performance
of “Mr. Puri.”That’s the sixth showing
to a capacity four hundred crowd, each time.Mind you, so many people told us
they’ve come two, three or four times.

TRANSLATE

ABOUT ME

I am a disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and I became a monk of the Hare Krishna order in 1973. My teacher gave me the spiritual name, Bhaktimarga Swami, which means "the path of devotion". Of course, this fits right in with my avid promotion of walking adventures as a way to connect with the Divine and lead a more care-free / car-free lifestyle. It is a great joy to share these adventures in both Canada and abroad with you via my daily blog.
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ARTICLE: BHAKTIMARGA SWAMI: A LIFE DRAMATIC

CLICK ON PHOTO TO READ FULL ARTICLE FEATURED ON ISKCON NEWS: To ISKCON devotees everywhere, the name Bhaktimarga Swami conjures up images of powerful, out-of-the-box stage productions; and of energetic kirtans, full of stomping dance moves and jubilant smiles...